Why we sleep when ill Lesson 31 of the medicine course of Mova's primary school: 14 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: the lesson at school .
0 When you are ill, a lot of what you feel is not the germ itself but your own body fighting it: the immune system sends out chemical messengers that make you sleepy, achy and off your food. 1 It is like a city under attack switching off the fairground lights to send all the power to the defenders: you rest, you eat less, and the energy goes to the fight. 2 The shivers are part of the plan too: the brain turns up the body's thermostat, and you feel freezing until your body has heated up to the new setting, even though you are already hot to touch. 3 Recovery takes a little longer than the germ: you can still be tired after it's gone, and sometimes a second infection, like an ear infection after a cold, makes you worse again just when you felt better. 4 When fighting an infection the immune system releases chemical messengers, called cytokines, that make you sleepy so the body can save energy. 5 Sleeping a lot when ill is not laziness; during sleep the body repairs itself and the immune system works hard. 6 Children who regularly sleep well tend to catch fewer infections, though sleep doesn't cure everything. 7 Appetite often drops during an infection; eating little for a day or two is fine, but drinking enough is important. 8 The aches all over in flu come mostly from the immune system's chemical messengers, not from the virus attacking the muscles. 9 In a fever the brain raises the body's temperature setting, so you shiver and feel cold until you reach it, then feel hot and sweaty. 10 Light layers and drinks are better than piling on heavy blankets, which can make a fever higher and more uncomfortable. 12 Going back to school too soon can leave you exhausted, because the body is still tired after the germ has gone, and straight after a high fever you may still pass the germ on. 13 Quiet rest, like reading, drawing or sleeping, helps recovery, and screens late at night make sleep worse. 14 Comfort from a parent, a cuddle or sleeping nearby, helps ill children feel safe, and needing it doesn't make you a baby. ← previous Germs, the immune system and hand-washingnext → Needles and brave faces↑ back to Medicine This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/31-why-we-sleep-when-ill/